A few days back the Cour de Justice de la République (a judicial court in France) found Christine Lagarde, the IMF Chief, guilty of "negligence by a person in a position of public authority" in regards to 400 million EUR that Christine authorized as a payment to settle a dispute with the bank Crédit Lyonnais. But that's OK because the court did not impose neither a fine nor a sentence. Immediately after the verdict, the directors of the IMF declared that they had “full confidence in the managing director’s ability to continue to effectively carry out her duties.” Not to be outdone, the Obama administration's showed support for Lagarde through the statement of the Treasury secretary who said “she is a strong leader of the I.M.F., and we have every confidence in her ability to guide the fund at a critical time for the global economy.”
Who is Chirstine Lagarde?
Excellent question.
For that, we refer you to our articles Our Financial Leaders Ladies And Gentleman and others dealing with the IMF, the International Monetary Fund. Or, as we prefer to call it, the Masters of the Financial Universe. She just happens to be the head of such Masters.
Now let's just pause a second and think.
The IMF (arguably) handles the largest amount of money any bank can have at its disposal outside of governments. Right now its Chief was formally and officially declared "negligent"… and nobody gives a crap about this.
And the question is why?
And the answer is because people don't get that what she wasted was taxpayer money (sure, French taxpayer money but...). People are so accustomed to think of the state as an independent and segregated entity that what happens inside of it matters not. What happens inside of it, does not affect them.
Wrong!
In order to help you understand how wrong this is, allow us to transfer this event to a setting that you will understand.
Let's assume that you have all your money, credit cards, mortgage, savings, retirement mutual funds, the Christmas fund, and so on deposited in the Bank Of Much Hope (BOMH).
One day you get up in the morning only to read in the newspaper that the director of the bank has been found negligible to the tune of 400 million EUR. Not only that, but this director was neither fined nor jailed. Not only that, but this Director received a vote of full confidence from the Board of Directors. Not only that, but the director received a statement of unquestionable support as a "leader" from the biggest competing bank in your country.
How would you feel? What would you do?
A) You would run to the bank and transfer all your assets to a far more reliable and less risky bank or
B) You would simply say "meh…", dismissed the whole affair, return to bed and keep sleeping.
Any person in their right mind would normally react as stated in A, however, when an exactly similar situation happens to your money in government hands, everybody reacts as B! Incredible, isn't it?
Yet, this is exactly what is happening. Today.
People actually expects politicians and bureaucrats to be incompetent and with such incompetence comes negligence and corruption. So, when this happens, nobody gives a darn about this.
That's OK. People are lazy but they are also tired of the rat race that our daily lives have become. We understand. We are not here to make you change your mind. We are here to explain to you what is going on. Follow the crumbs, please.
- Governments screw-up the economy
- A screwed-up economy cannot operate normally
- In an abnormally functioning (or barely functioning) economy, there are no jobs.
- No jobs means that your future as well as present was just cancelled.
- No present and no future means desperation and depression. Loss of the will to fight.
- Apathy breads more apathy which in turn generates the non-public-response that we have seen in this case.
See the relationship now?
This is why we are Libertarians in the first place. If we screw-up (economically speaking) then there is nobody to blame but ourselves. This leads to the inevitable conclusion that everything in our hands. Ultimate freedom comes hand-in-hand with ultimate responsibility. We want that, and so do you, even if you don't know it yet.
Even today and in ultimate analysis it is your decision. You can support negligent politicians and apparatchiks with your full confidence, or, you can come back to your senses and stop. Just stop. Voting, that is, and letting the whole rotten system collapse due to their own dead weight.
Your choice. Negligence or your own competence. You decide. But decide well since only your future and the future of humanity is at stake. What's the worst that can happen, right? Oh… yes… now that we mention it…
Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.
